Why Should I Be Excited About… New Candys at The Green Door Store, 31/5/2015

New Candys

Hearing New Candys for the first time I was more than surprised, and not in a throw up in my mouth this is shit kind of way like I usually am when discovering music these days. No, in this case I was amazed by how beautifully composed and appropriate everything sounded, seeing as the majority of psychedelic bands leering their ugly heads out of a hole of uninspired decapitated dreams seemingly just do things to be edgy or weird, in which case they’re completely missing the whole idea of authenticity that once belonged to the genre and what New Candys (thank god) have succeeded at. Upon hearing that this band came from Italy, it has made me ponder as to what kind of crazy mind enhancing chemicals are they being fed over there, and where the fuck can I get some for my own music? Their use of effects is plentiful, but tasteful and simply extenuates the powerful melodies that rival those of many more highbrow acts such as The Black Angels, The Dandy Warhols or The Brian Jonestown Massacre. Their second track on their newest album ‘Song For The Mutant’ has one of the most simple, but memorable riffs I’ve heard all year and while putting Sitars in songs has kind of been a cliché for a good while now, New Candys have made me realise why that was the case in the first place. New Candys LP (As Medicine) is an incredible album from start to finish and if you like this style of music, or have any kind of soul at all then you’ll be absolutely absorbed by this.

Listen to their newest LP ‘New Candys As Medicine’ and their previous tunes here:

The best way I could possibly describe The Vickers would be by imagining if Foxygen decided to stop trying to make music that they thought would be popular and start playing stuff that they thought sounded cool as hell. The Vickers are the kind of band where if they were playing in a crowded room, you would likely be inclined to widen your eyes that little bit more, gaze around the vicinity and occasionally focus on one person and then consider the possibility if that individual would enjoy killing you, which as we all know with psychedelic music, can only be a really good thing. Despite my Foxygen comment, The Vickers really do have tunes that can be enjoyed by many kinds of audiences, with powerful haunting melodies which I have to admit, made me feel Goosebumps at times. I’ve really got to hand it to the musicians in this band; they really know how to put together simple, but incredibly effective parts that create epic harmonies. You know they’ve all got the capability to play technical, but that’s not what music is about and these guys know that. Their album ‘Ghosts’ is an absolute delight with headphones on and I encourage anybody listening to this band for the first time to do exactly that, if only to appreciate how incredibly clever and necessary the production is presented. There’s a really sinister edge to a lot of their songs that have connected with me (being quite sinister myself), but presented in a really chilled out psychedelic way which just works. Definitely one to look out for.

Why the hell aren’t these guys getting the attention they so sorely deserve? That’s one of the many paining internal questions I consistently ask myself whenever I come to a gig and find a real gem of a band that seemingly nobody knows. When it comes to local bands in Brighton, it’s often very much a hit and miss scenario. This seems to be very much the case with Buddha Blood who fit in comfortably with the aesthetics of the bands they’re opening for, boasting a vibe heavily reminiscent of mid 60s psychedelia with a more contemporary edge; I’m sure if they had come about during that time they would be playing with the likes of 13th floor elevators and other innovators of that scene. With droning melodic riffs and moaning, fuzzy vocals, Buddha Blood separate themselves from all the insufferable reverberated bullshit bands that seem to plague Brightons Psychedelic scene like a blood sucking virus. Thank God there’s still some diamonds in the rough out there and as a new band, it’s exciting to see where they go from here on out. They’ve got the potential and I’m sure they’ll deliver when they open for The Vickers and New Candys at this Sundays gig. There’s definitely going to be some brain explosions that night, that’s for sure and for the price, I don’t see why you would be dumb enough to miss out.